We spent the majority of the period on MLK since yesterday was a national holiday in his honor. We also spent some time learning about Rosa Parks who's refusal to move to the back of a bus basically started the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, AL on Dec. 1, 1955. She became an international icon for desegregation. Ms. Parks's action inadvertently began the Montgomery Bus Boycott in which a young, new minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. was so devoted to civil rights that he eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. We concluded the lesson learning about a great American named Harriet Tubman who preceded Ms. Parks and Minister King by approximately 100 years. Ms. Tubman was born into slavery in MD in 1819. She was so badly abused by a white overseer that she suffered physical abuse that led to a violent blow to her forehead when she was just 12 years old. The injury left Ms. Tubman with permanent damage to her speech as well as a very visible scar on her forehead. In 1857, Ms. Tubman escaped to freedom and devoted herself to the Underground Railroad. She helped so many enslaved Americans escape to freedom that she became known as the "Moses of the South." Elle seemed quite moved by later in life photos of Ms. Tubman in which the scar from the head injury inflicted on her as a child was visible in photos.

A new project was introduced to Elle today. She will be designing either her own state or country (she will determine her preference over the weekend.) Elle will work on the location, climate, cities, transportation, history, population, culture of her new creation and much more. The planning phase will occur in Elle's room. Once Elle has completed the planning phase,we will work in the art room so that she may visually create her project. Elle seemed excited about the concept and the project and I look forward to observing and helping her implement her enthusiasm and creativity!

Today, Elle was in charge of current events. Here are the important issues she discovered:
-The current U.S. birthrate is dropping due to younger people deciding to marry and have children later in life. Some decide not to have families later on in life. U.S. birthrates have dropped by the millions in recent years. Elle and I discussed this. One of the things that will likely occur is that as older populations age, there will be less younger people to care for them.
-We also noted the current event about the little 2-year old boy who fell down a very small well in Spain yesterday. The news reports that Spanish authorities are continuing their search today. However, the little boy has not yet been recovered.
-Elle was also interested in the teenage girl from Saudi Arabia who was seeking asylum and has been taken in by Canada.

Today we examined what a government shutdown is, what institutions and individuals - from employees to the general population it affects and that the current shutdown is now the longest one in U.S. History. After this, we began to learn about the European Union, "Brexit" and what impact it will have on the EU, Great Britain and the world.

Current Events - The federal government shutdown continues. It is the longest in history. Federal employees are suffering with no pay, the garbage accumulations in D.C. and at U.S. national parks across the country are mounting, unsanitary and shameful. National museums and monuments remain closed to the public and airport security check points across the nation are virtually inoperable. Airports have to condense passenger security checkpoints because TSA employees cannot work. National records are being broken in the most unfortunate of circumstances.

Today we focused on President Trump's visit to the Texas/Mexico border and discussed Elle's viewpoint on the proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. We also discussed the government shutdown and how it not only impacts the function of the U.S. government, but the general public. This extends from the build up of garbage in the nation's capital and national parks to the shutdowns of museums in Washington, D.C. The shutdown is even impacting our nation's airports and commercial flying.

We began with current events. Today, Florida's new law allowing citizens convicted of certain felonies to vote. This could make a difference in the outcome of elections that result in extremely narrow results as we often see here in Florida. We also continued our study of state capitals and Elle did some more work on the State Capital Word Search.

We began with a review of state capitals and reinforced this with a state capital word search exercise. We concluded class with a CNN for Kids Current Events update.

Holiday Party

We learned about the very sad state of affairs in Yemen - one of the poorest middle eastern countries where a civil war has been happening for years. There is violence, upheaval and famine in Yemen and terrible human suffering.